Sunday, 23 March 2014

Time is running out (and so is the animation budget) in this week's Wizard Barristers, as Macal's sinister plan to summon Lucifer kicks into full force.

For Butterfly Law Offices, this means that it's their turn to be invaded, where it quickly becomes clear that resistance will be futile. What their brief resistance does allow, however, is for Cecil to gain some further distant from her pursuers - unfortunately this is but a temporary reprieve before Shizumu tracks her down and makes it clear that he'll take no prisoners when it comes to, well, taking Cecil prisoner.

Thus, Cecil is captured, and the ritual begins to summon Lucifer with Cecil as the body presented to him - what Makusu doesn't know however is that summoning Lucifer to the Earth is a pointless request, as Lucifer is already there. What's more he (she?) has taken more than a passing interest in Cecil, and intends to impart all of the powers that come with the job upon her to see what she does with them. Before this is completed, Shizumu hijacks the ritual in an attempt to save Cecil, which leaves her instead having to face-off against a murderous Makusu in an attempt to both save herself and, of course, bring him to justice.

Whether this week's instalment ran out of production time or money, there were some decidedly painful corner-cutting elements on show today in Wizard Barristers, which served only to significantly reduce its impact whenever they occurred. Outside of some half-baked visuals, the show's grand finale (not counting next week's trial of Makusu) didn't really live up to its billing either - its twists were largely predictable, and somehow the world never felt in peril as it perhaps should have done from a fallen angel being called to Earth. In a way, this episode sums up the series as a whole pretty well - impressive in brief flashes which threaten to be underwhelmed by a clunky and ill-prepared framework, and ultimately not as jaw-dropping as it clearly wants to be.